A vaccine can confer active immunity against a specific harmful agent by stimulating the immune system to attack the agent. Once stimulated by a vaccine, the antibody-producing cells, called B lymphocytes, remain sensitized and ready to respond to the agent should it ever gain entry to the body. A vaccine may also confer passive immunity by providing antibodies or lymphocytes already made by an animal or human donor. Vaccines are usually administered by injection (parenteral administration), but some are given orally. Vaccines applied to mucosal surfaces, such as those lining the gut or nasal passages, seem to stimulate a greater antibody response and may be the most-effective route of administration. (For further information, seeimmunization.)

The first vaccines

active immunizationJean–Loup Charmet/Photo Researchers, Inc.The first vaccine was introduced by British physician Edward Jenner, who in 1796 used the cowpox virus (vaccinia) to confer protection against smallpox, a related virus, in humans. Prior to that use, however, the principle of vaccination was applied by Asian physicians who gave children dried crusts from the lesions of people suffering from smallpox to protect against the disease. While some developed immunity, others developed the disease. Jenner’s contribution was to use a substance similar to, but safer than, smallpox to confer immunity. He thus exploited the relatively rare situation in which immunity to one virus confers protection against another viral disease. In 1881 French microbiologist Louis Pasteur demonstrated immunization against anthrax by injecting sheep with a preparation containing attenuated forms of the bacillus that causes the disease. Four years later he developed a protective suspension against rabies.

Vaccine types

The challenge in vaccine development consists in devising a vaccine strong enough to ward off infection without making the individual seriously ill. To that end, researchers have devised different types of vaccines. Weakened, or attenuated, vaccines consist of microorganisms that have lost the ability to cause serious illness but retain the ability to stimulate immunity. They may produce a mild or subclinical form of the disease. Attenuated vaccines include those for measles, mumps, polio (the Sabin vaccine), rubella, and tuberculosis. Inactivated vaccines are those that contain organisms that have been killed or inactivated with heat or chemicals. Inactivated vaccines elicit an immune response, but the response often is less complete than with attenuated vaccines. Because inactivated vaccines are not as effective at fighting infection as those made from attenuated microorganisms, greater quantities of inactivated vaccines are administered. Vaccines against rabies, polio (the Salk vaccine), some forms of influenza, and cholera are made from inactivated microorganisms. Another type of vaccine is a subunit vaccine, which is made from proteins found on the surface of infectious agents. Vaccines for influenza and hepatitis B are of that type. When toxins, the metabolic by-products of infectious organisms, are inactivated to form toxoids, they can be used to stimulate immunity against tetanus, diphtheria, and whooping cough (pertussis).

In the late 20th century, advances in laboratory techniques allowed approaches to vaccine development to be refined. Medical researchers could identify the genes of a pathogen (disease-causing microorganism) that encode the protein or proteins that stimulate the immune response to that organism. That allowed the immunity-stimulating proteins (called antigens) to be mass-produced and used in vaccines. It also made it possible to alter pathogens genetically and produce weakened strains of viruses. In that way, harmful proteins from pathogens can be deleted or modified, thus providing a safer and more-effective method by which to manufacture attenuated vaccines.

Recombinant DNA technology has also proven useful in developing vaccines to viruses that cannot be grown successfully or that are inherently dangerous. Genetic material that codes for a desired antigen is inserted into the attenuated form of a large virus, such as the vaccinia virus, which carries the foreign genes “piggyback.” The altered virus is injected into an individual to stimulate antibody production to the foreign proteins and thus confer immunity. The approach potentially enables the vaccinia virus to function as a live vaccine against several diseases, once it has received genes derived from the relevant disease-causing microorganisms. A similar procedure can be followed using a modified bacterium, such as Salmonella typhimurium, as the carrier of a foreign gene. Another approach, called naked DNA therapy, involves injecting DNA that encodes a foreign protein into muscle cells. The cells produce the foreign antigen, which stimulates an immune response.

Benefits of vaccination

In addition to the development of memory B cells, which are capable of triggering a secondary immune response upon exposure to the pathogen targeted by a vaccine, vaccination is also beneficial at the population level. When a sufficient number of individuals in a population are immune to a disease, as would occur if a large proportion of a population were vaccinated, herd immunity is achieved. That means that if there is random mixing of individuals within the population, then the pathogen cannot be spread throughout the population. Herd immunity acts by breaking the transmission of infection or by lessening the chances of susceptible individuals coming in contact with a person who is infectious. Herd immunity provides a measure of protection to individuals who are not personally immune to the disease—for instance, individuals who, because of their age or underlying medical conditions, cannot receive vaccines or individuals who received vaccines but remain susceptible. Herd immunity played an important role in the successful eradication of smallpox, and it is vital in preventing the spread of diseases such as polio and measles.

Adverse reactions

Vaccination carries some risk of reaction, though adverse effects typically are very rare and very mild. The most common reactions to vaccines include redness and soreness around the vaccination site. More severe adverse reactions, such as vomiting, high fever, seizure, brain damage, or death, are possible for some vaccines. Such reactions are exceptionally rare, however—occurring in less than one in a million people for most vaccines. Severe reactions also tend to affect only certain populations, such as persons whose immune systems are compromised by preexisting disease (e.g., HIV/AIDS) or who are undergoing chemotherapy.

Claims have been made that vaccines are responsible for certain adverse health conditions, particularly autism, speech disorders, and inflammatory bowel disease. Some of those claims focused on thimerosal, a mercury-containing compound used as a preservative in vaccines. Some people believed that autism was a form of mercury poisoning, caused specifically by thimerosal in childhood vaccines. Those claims have been discredited. Still, misinformation and fear generated by false claims about associations between autism and vaccines had a significant impact on individuals’ perceptions about vaccine safety. In addition, most individuals in countries where vaccination is widespread have never personally experienced vaccine-preventable disease. Thus, the focus of concern for some people shifted from the negative effects of vaccine-preventable disease to the possible negative effects of the vaccines themselves.

Complacency about vaccine-preventable diseases, combined with concerns over the effects of vaccination, led to decreasing levels of vaccination coverage in some areas of the world. As a consequence, not only were individuals susceptible to vaccine-preventable diseases, but, at population levels, vaccination rates dropped low enough to cause losses of herd immunity, thereby allowing outbreaks of disease. Such outbreaks brought high costs to societies, especially in terms of health and medical care, disability and economic strain, and loss of life. In the 20th century in Japan, England, and Russia, for example, numbers of children vaccinated against whooping cough dropped sufficiently low so as to enable outbreaks of disease that involved thousands of children and resulted in hundreds of deaths.

Click anywhere inside the article to add text or insert superscripts, subscripts, and special characters.
You can also highlight a section and use the tools in this bar to modify existing content:

Add links to related Britannica articles!
You can double-click any word or highlight a word or phrase in the text below and then select an article from the search box.
Or, simply highlight a word or phrase in the article, then enter the article name or term you'd like to link to in the search box below, and select from the list of results.

Note: we do not allow links to external resources in editor.
Please click the Web sites link for this article to add citations for
external Web sites.